


The Victor Who Started It All

by WildcatPacer



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 04:05:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11959341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildcatPacer/pseuds/WildcatPacer
Summary: Meet the very first Victor - Fir Yule of District 7!





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: They Call It The Reaping**

The trees of... I guess this is called District 7 now, have always been a comfort to me. Even if the constant dark clouds and rain remind me that nothing will ever be the same again.

My name is Fir Yule. I live in District 7. It had another name - Washington State. My hometown actually had a name - Seattle. But both are forbidden now; even to utter them will be punishable by death via the white guards that now patrol our streets. The replacement of the National Guard.

The year is 2020. And a matter of months ago, we were still a free country that was once known as the United States. However, the news media have begun to give this land a new name: Panem.

We lost the Rebellion. District 13 - or what was once called the Northeast - was bombed to smithereens by the Capitol, formerly known as Washington D.C. My parents were some of the fiercest fighters out here in the Western regions. They were killed after the Peacekeepers, those white guards, overran us. 17 years old, and I am now an orphan.

And apparently about to watch something historic, as we all gather in front of the Town Hall that has since been re-named the Justice Building.

So many new names. It will take some time to remember them all correctly. I wonder if I should change my name.

The rumors about today have been whirling. They say two kids will be selected for some kind of competition, kind of akin to the Olympics that were held every four years until recently. Except this competition is called the Hunger Games. We don't know what it involves. Only that it will serve as a kind of punishment for the districts rising up. Their children sent to the nexus of power to do... what?

"I heard that it's a fight to the death," I eavesdrop on one neighbor as I stand in the thronging crowd filled with confusion.

"Trump's gone mad this time," another mutters darkly.

"Haven't you heard? Trump is dead! The CIA assassinated him, but the media wouldn't report it for the longest time. Mike Pence is the President now. He's suspended all elections! Fucking Christo-Fascist!"

"So, what say does Pence have in this whole Hunger Games thing?"

"Hush up, asshole. Here comes Mayor Murray."

Mayor Ed Murray now takes the stone podium and reads a brand new speech. He titles it the Dark Days speech, which as we listen, chronicles the failed Rebellion that is still very fresh in our minds. "... this is how we safeguard our future," he finishes.

Yeah, what future?

Then a woman with the most ridiculous hair and makeup I've ever seen comes bounding up onstage after Mayor Murray. "My name is Candace Earring. Happy Hunger Games everyone, for the first time ever! And may the odds be ever in your favor!"

Odds? What does that mean?

Two glass balls filled with slips of paper are suddenly presented before Candace. She steps up to the one at her right. Well, really my right, and plucks out one slip.

"Fir Yule!"

A girl's name. My name. Oh, shit.

As I take the stage nervously, I begin to stew with anger. My selection was no accident. It had to have been rigged! Candace then moves on to the bowl at her left, which I guess must hold the boys' names.

"Ewan Banyan!"

Poor Ewan. He's only fourteen years old, and his parents were good friends and kindred rebel spirits with my parents. Candace makes us shake hands, before announcing, "The tributes for District 7!"

Tributes? Tributes for what? What does that mean?

* * *

I am escorted into the Justice Building and separated from Ewan, locked in my own private ornate room. "We will let visitors in on a five-minute basis," a Peacekeeper has the decency to tell me.

Visitors? With my parents dead, I don't know how many people will come to visit me. Maybe a few friends. But no sooner have I been locked in than someone is let past the door to join me.

Of course. Matthew Hemlock is my age, a classmate in school. He is one of the closest things I have to a friend, and the smartest kind in this whole... district. He wants to be a carpenter, lumberjack - any and all things which involve the tall redwood trees that District 7 is now responsible for. He bravely pulls me into a hug.

"You can win, Fir," he promises.

"Win what?" I stare up into his face. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to win!"

"Fir, they say this competition pr whatever it is - it's dangerous! There are rumors that people are going to die in this tournament. All except for one. Dead children, Fir! You have to be the one who lives, if the rumors are true!"

I gulp. Death? "I'm not ready for this, Matthew."

"You don't have a choice. Just come home. The winner. Whatever you have to do to get that title. Come home. And whatever happens... please remember me."

I smile gently at the awkward nerd standing before me. "I could never forget you."

"Fir... I..." And Matthew looks like he wants to say something important.

"Yes?" I ask sweetly.

But he only shakes his head with a sad smile. "Go. Go! And remember what I said." He suddenly pecks my cheek with his lips and turns on his heel so I can't see him cry.

I touch my palm to my cheek where he kissed me, bewildered. What just happened? But I wait many more minutes and no one else comes. Not until Candace fetches me, and we join Ewan. We board a train, which is exciting. Transportation outside of the district has been banned for many months since the uprisings started, so this is kind of exciting.

Except there is a strong chance, if the rumors are true, that I will never see District 7 again.


	2. Training and Interviews

**Chapter 2: Training and Interviews**

On the ride over to the Capitol, Candace gives Ewan and I pointers about what to expect. They don't exactly help, as she is only willing to tell us so much; when we try to ask her questions, she is very vague.

The paparazzi and other media are in a frenzy when we arrive. I feel a palpable excitement in the air, and I have to wonder what it is they are excited about.

We meet with fancily-dressed people who look like Candace. Except they are fashion experts. Candace calls them 'stylists.' They primp and preen Ewan and I for a few hours, until we are directed to a stable with horses drawing chariots behind them.

This is a new tradition that will occur in perpetuity to official begin the Games, and I wonder if it's an Opening Ceremony similar to the discontinued Olympics. It is, but it is very weird.

Ewan and I are dressed up as trees. Yes, trees. I know this is probably to represent our district, but Halloween isn't for another four months, so why go through all of this?

The Chariot Parade, as I learn this event will be called, is a shitshow from start to finish. The horses get spooked by the loud music and drums playing, and the skittishness makes a few tributes fall off the chariots while they're in motion. Thankfully, no one is seriously hurt.

President Pence then makes a speech welcoming us. Is it just the light, or does he seem even more washed-out than he usually does? His white skin looks almost ghostly pale. Candace then whisks us into the Tribute Training Center after the speech is over.

Training begins the very next morning. I, along with the other 23 strangers here, don't really know what we're being trained to do, or what for. But then, I see the weapons. Weapons of all kinds and how we are expected to handle them.

To kill.

Matthew was right. This is a fight to the death.

Thankfully, I know how to work throwing axes from when I was a young child back home. I start with these to calm my nerves, before eventually handling blades I have never seen before. This goes on for the next three days. Only once are we given orders, which is to not go up to the roof of the Center, as apparently one of the tributes did that the first night and tried to jump off.

At the end of those three days, every tribute goes back into the center privately, one by one, to show off special skills to the Gamemakers. I guess they might be judges, or event planners or something. I demonstrate my skill with throwing axes when my turn comes, just before Ewan has to go.

They must impressed, for that very same night, Training Scores are posted. I get a 9, one of the highest scores there is across the board. Ewan pulls a 6, which Candace delicately says is average. How can it be average if this event has never been done before. Who can say what great is and what average is for an inaugural event?

The fourth day and night is spent focusing on each and every tribute being interviewed on national television. Candace coaches both me and Ewan, encouraging us to present our best selves.

Almost half the tributes - well, exactly half - already go by the time it's my turn that night.

"So, Fir! Are you excited for this never-before-seen event?" the interviewer asks me.

I shrug. "How can I be excited if I don't know what to expect?" I answer. It's honest, and about as rebellious as I can get without being openly treasonous. I can see Pence in the President's special box, along the balcony. I think one of his predecessors - when we were a different country known as the United States - was assassinated in that very same box, centuries ago now.

A buzzer concludes my time, and I only listen dutifully to Ewan before tuning out the rest.

I go to bed that night terrified for the first time in my life.


	3. Forest Arena

**Chapter 3: Forest Arena**

The next morning is spent with Ewan and I being shoved into things.

We start with being shoved aboard a chopper called a hovercraft, stationed on the rood of the Tribute Training Center. Then, we have something injected into our forearms. A tracker, it's called, to keep track of us.

We are then hustled underground, beneath what I have heard referred to only as the 'arena.' My stylist meets me and gives me a hug goodbye. It's almost as if she thinks she will never see me again. Then, she nudges me into a glass pod, which then pushes me up, up, up...

I emerge into a foresty landscape and for a moment, I am tricked into believing that I have just been sent back home to District 7. I am on some kind of pedestals, and so are these 23 strangers, in a ring around me. Well, actually, we are all part of a ring that surrounds a giant metal horn. Gun-metal gray in color. And it is covered in supplies that you might use for camping. But also weapons that we studied in the Training Center.

We wait for... I don't know what. When nothing happens, the girl from 6 a few pedestals to my right simply starts for the stash.

KABOOM! The girl is suddenly no longer there. We all yelp as one, in disbelief over what just happened. Where is she? What happened to her? She can't be...?

A gong suddenly rings out. Recalling the bells ringing during the school day, I interpret this as some kind of signal and jog off my pedestal and for the horn. Nothing happens to me, which actually encourages the others to follow. We begin to pick up backpacks and other weapons curiously.

We just stand there, staring at each other. What are we supposed to do?

All at once, the girl from 3 and the boy from 5 get into an argument over a backpack. The girl shoves the boy so that he slams violently into the horn. He collapses to the grass and doesn't move.

BOOM. What was that? It's a different sound than the one that killed the girl from 6.

It's as if the BOOM is some kind of trigger, like a command. Kids suddenly lunge for one another, even if there is an uncertainness behind their eyes. As if possessed by alcohol or another de-inhibtior, they actually plunge whatever weapons they have into each other.

But not me. I only have to stare horrified for a moment, before I turn and run for the trees.

As I reach the edge of them, I get a good look at the arena itself. It is not very big in diameter, with high wooden walls to prevent any tributes from escaping.

But that doesn't mean some don't try. The boy from 10 is trying to find handholds, anything to scramble up with. "HELP! HELP!"

The boy from 1 starts for him and promptly stabs him in the stomach. I wince, and run into the trees.

I hear eight more cannons, which I guess are the signifiers for eight more deaths, as I continue through the trees throughout that first day. I hunt with my axe until the sun goes down. Then, suddenly, through the canopies, I hear music - an anthem, almost - and the faces of some of my fellow tributes appear in the sky.

The girl from 3 who started the whole fight. The boy from 5. Both from 6, including the girl who got blown up. Ewan. The girl from 8. The boy from 9. Both from 10. And the girl from 12. That's it, apparently. All the dead, I see that now.

Ten tributes gone. I wonder if that's what Candace would call average? I go to sleep wondering how much time I have left until my own death.


	4. Richer Districts Betrayed

**Chapter 4: Richer Districts Betrayed**

I have only been able to keep track of time by the patterns of the sun and the moon. With this, I know that I have been in this arena for about a week.

All fourteen tributes who survived the first day are still alive. I have not heard another cannon. So, I simply keep content by hunting through the woods with my axe. There are plenty of animals to feast on, so as long as you know how to hunt, you won't exactly go hungry the way the title of this competition suggests.

On the morning of the seventh day, I spy a pack of tributes wandering through the trees towards me. I hide and watch them. These are the tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4. I don't know what states they used to be, only that they were richer parts of the country, closer to the coasts. And that meant they had the support of the Capitol.

All at once, I see... I can't believe my eyes... fireballs rain down into the forest from the heavens. They land on the group, who try to run, screaming. Fireballs continue to rain down, as if some God, in His displeasure, has suddenly decided to cut short this madness. So perhaps it is mercy.

Or maybe not, as all six tributes die before my very eyes. I hear six cannons afterwards.

Only eight tributes left. The boy from 3. The girl from 5. Me. Boy from 8. Girl from 9. Both from 11. And boy from 12. This must occur to those watching the Games too, for an announcer suddenly says, "Congratulations to the Final Eight tributes of this 1st Hunger Games! This will be a new milestone that will be much commended for generations to come! Four days hence, there will be a Feast at the Cornucopia - or what you might refer to as that great metal horn. There will be supplies and more food than you can possibly imagine - a reward for you getting this far!"

I am getting tired of the woodsy food I have managed to procure. And maybe I can get more supplies. I decide to go to the Feast.

* * *

On Day Eleven, I realize that coming back to the horn was a big mistake.

All the other tributes still alive did, too.

As I try to get more food and another backpack, the tributes from District 11 suddenly attack me with curved swords. I dodge and actually manage to stab both of them with my axe, hacking them until blood pours from their flesh wounds and they die. Grabbing a backpack with my bloodied hands and another axe, I run. But I glance back in time to see the boy from 3 killed by the boy from 12.


	5. The Victor

**Chapter 5: The Victor**

Another ten days back. My 21st day in the arena overall. Still only five of us left. Starting to feel exhausted, I go back over them in my head: the girl from 5. Me. Boy from 8. Girl from 9. Boy from 12.

The announcer suddenly comes on over the arena again, announcing another Feast. I guess they want to end this. Really draw us together. The natural dangers - which I have learned the Gamemakers control - have taken their toll on me; I have only just managed to escape them. I don't want to go, remembering just what I risked to get out of the last one alive. But if a few more tributes die...

* * *

There are even more supplies surrounding the Cornucopia than the Feast that occurred a week and a half ago. This time, however, I hide within the trees to watch what happens.

Something happens, all right. The boy from 8 and the girl from 9 reach for backpacks at the same moment. Like the tussle that really started to Games, they grapple and argue over one. Finally, the girl from 9 wins, killing the male from her neighboring district. But she is winded - enough for the girl from 5 to sneak up behind her - the latter girl has spent most of her time sneaking around - and plunging a small knife into District 9's back.

I am about to launch myself into the fray when the girl from 5 quite literally blows up.

I freeze. Was it a land mine? Or one of those things under the pedestals that claimed the first live of these Games. Two tributes left... two tributes left...

I charge into the fray as the boy from 12, who just threw a homemade bomb and is covered in soot and fire, goes for me. He has plenty more of those bomb things where that came from, which he now desperately launches at me. I dodge and weave and leap away from them, batting the last grenade away with my own hands. It blows up in the air.

Now out of bombs, the District 12 boy doesn't seem to know what else to do. But I do. I have to kill him.

So I launch myself at him, and even though he appear to be a year older than me and much bigger, I get him down on the ground and proceed to bring my axe down on any part of him that moves. At last, his body lies still from convulsing. BOOM.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 1st Hunger Games ever: Fir Yule of District 7!"

I can't believe it. I won. I'm going to see Candace again - stupid Candace! And I'll get to see Matthew again... I'm going home.


	6. The Nerd Gets the Girl

**Chapter 6: The Nerd Gets the Girl**

I am thrown a party after I leave the arena. I have a final interview for the media, and President Pence places a golden crown on my head.

Then, I go home with Candace, tired but relieved.

The first person to meet me at the District 7 train station is, of course, Matthew Hemlock. He gives me a big hug and spins me around. "You did it, Fir! I knew you could!"

Over the next year, I just wander the district and hunt and try to go on with my life. Forget the arena. Many people here seem to think it was a one-time punishment. That it will be over soon.

Sad fools. For the very next summer, Mayor Murray reads my name as the Victor of the 1st Hunger Games, in preparation for Reaping for the 2nd. My tributes - my students - are two little kids, neither of whom are over 13.

As I wait for them in the Justice Building, I suddenly see Matthew by my side. "Come here," he tells me.

I can't explain, but I stare at my best friend suspiciously. "Why?" I ask. But he only takes my hand and guides me into a dark corner of the Building. As soon as we are alone, I suddenly feel his hands on my face and his lips press into mine.

"Mmmmm!" I squeak in shock, but I can't pull out of Matthew's strong embrace. His eyes are already closed and I wonder if anything would make him open them again. At long last, we break apart.

"I love you, Fir," Matthew bravely pours out his heart. "I was so relieved when you won. I know I don't amount to much in terms of popularity, but... I was wondering if... you would marry me? I would love you your whole life if you would let me!"

I bite my lip and gaze at him with a mixture of astonishment and skepticism. I am fiercely independent and have always prided myself on this. And the Games and having to mentor them are traumatizing enough for one person to go through.

But, as I gaze into Matthew's eyes, I realize that having a partner who can support you and sympathize with you might be the only thing that can get me through my new life. My life as a Victor.

I make my decision. But I don't voice it. Instead, I impulsively grab Matthew and crash my lips into his in a heated kiss. I leap into his arms and let him touch me intimately. At one point, his hands wander and grope my accentuated ass, and I boldly raise my leg to his waist in response. I leap into his arms and we begin to kiss open-mouth. At last, I break the kiss and rest my forehead against his, pausing only to cover his face with kisses.

"If we get married," I hiss in his ear, "You can't ever tell me what to do."

Matthew looks delighted. "Children?" he asks.

I have to laugh. "We'll talk about it," I say gently.

We chastely kiss one last time, and I say goodbye to my... husband-to-be as I board the train.

* * *

The 2nd Hunger Games results in a loss for District 7. But I was almost expecting it, with my tributes. You have to lose sometimes. A boy from District 1 wins.

When I return from the Capitol, Matthew Hemlock and I marry in a church wedding. It won't be for many years yet until religion is banned in Panem and our people turn to old slave traditions of jumping a log to get married.

And it won't be until many years later that a tribute from District 12 actually manages to become Victor. Since I cheated them out of a win in my Games, the very first one, no District 12 tribute has made what is now called the Top Two or even come close. But, for the 16th Games - my fifteenth anniversary as a Victor - a girl named Cassiope Flecth wins for District 12 at last. Every district finally has at least one Victor.

And I'm still the only one for Seven.

Until two years after Cassiope, whom I befriend. A boy from my home named Jago Portshore wins the 18th Games. After that, we get wins via Sabille Rosehearty in the 26th Games - the year after some new event called a Quarter Quell. Then, a boy named Eero Nitva triumphs for us in the 30th Games. And, after a long drought, a boy named Blight Jordan wins the 57th Games.

Meanwhile, Matthew and I are happily married. A few years after I won, after having sex together many times, I finally feel life with me. I give birth to a baby girl, who grows up and marries Bunyan McGregor, a lumberjack. They have a daughter who grows up and marries Connor Mason, and they give birth to a girl named...

Johanna.

And it is my great-granddaughter who is Reaped for the 71st Hunger Games, seven decades after my Victory. She does not know how we are related, and it is only after she wins that I reveal myself to her. She accepts the connection, but does not necessarily accept me. She is a very picky person when it comes to whom she cares for. But she is effective as a mentor, giving us another Victory in Pliny Arausio the very next year.

It will be the last time that a District gets consecutive Victories.


	7. 75th Reaping

**Chapter 7: 75th Reaping**

Time for the Third Quarter Quell. I am now 91 years old, the oldest Victor still alive.

Many of those I love have been long dead. My husband of sixty years has been gone awhile. Sabille Rosehearty, she has been gone many a year. So has Cassiope Fletch, who passed away just after Blight won. She only produced three successors. One was named Haymitch Abernathy, a drunk who won the Second Quarter Quell. The other two won an unusual victory together in last year's arena; apparently, they are lovers.

So when the Quell twist is announced as previous Victors, I know I'll be damned before I see my great-granddaughter go in.

There are only two women and three men to choose from at the Reaping - Jago has been dead for a long time too. Johanna, my great-grandchild, is chosen, but I volunteer in her place. Blight Jordan is made my counterpart. Johanna, Eero Nitva and Pliny Arausio mentor us.

I get only a 7 over three days of training. But my rebellious interview as the Victor with No Predecessor is legendary.

The arena is a dense jungle with the Cornucopia on an island with rocky spokes in the middle of a tiny sea. Despite my age, I make the beach, and rescue Blight as well as the District 3 Victors, Wiress and Beetee. I sadly lose Blight along the way; he wasn't much, but he was from home. However, I get District 3 to Haymitch's kids and we ally with them.

Later, I welcome death like an old friend, killed at the hands of the Careers after Wiress and District 1. I barely make the Final Eight for the second time in nearly three-quarters of a century.

BOOM.


End file.
